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Wednesday, May 15, 2019, 16:59

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Israel's Eurovision webcast hacked with animated blast images

By Reuters

Wednesday, May 15, 2019, 16:59By Reuters

Australia's Kate Miller-Heidke performs the song Zero Gravity during the first semi-final of the 64th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 at Expo Tel Aviv, May 14, 2019, in the Israeli coastal city. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)

Kan played down the hack, noting that the evening ended without further incident as Greece, Belarus, Serbia, Cyprus, Estonia, Czech Republic, Australia, Iceland, San Marino and Slovenia made it through to Saturday's finals.

"We know that at a certain stage there was an attempt, apparently by Hamas, to commandeer our digital broadcast," Kan CEO, Eldad Koblenz, told Israel's Army Radio.

"But I am happy to say that within a few minutes we managed to assume control over this phenomenon."

Palestinians and their foreign supporters have called, so far fruitlessly, on countries to shun the Tel Aviv songfest as part of wider efforts to isolate Israel internationally.

Many boycott calls have targeted Madonna, who arrived in Israel on Tuesday, ahead of the American pop star's guest performance at the Eurovision final.

The second semi-final is on Thursday.

Rebuffing the pressure, Madonna said she would "never stop playing music to suit someone's political agenda".

The European Broadcasting Union, which oversees the contest, did not have a number to hand for worldwide viewers of Tuesday's show. But an EBU spokesman said that, last year, a total of 186 million people watched both semi-finals and the finals.

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